Sätterlund Larsson, U.

Abstract [en]

This article focuses on patients’ accounts of chronic pain and the manner in which they communicate their experiences. The data have been generated through interviews with chronic pain patients undergoing treatment for their problems. The results show that patients develop a set of discursive markers by means of which they are able to make distinctions between different kinds of pain. These distinctions are made with respect to pain qualities and pain localizations in the body. Further, a majority of the patients report that one pain generally transforms into another. This subjectively perceived patterning we refer to as pain transformations and these, in turn, contain different pain phases. Most patients report pains as dynamic and tients report pains as dynamic and stable and consistent sensation. The results also show that some patients identify certain pain phases as precursors of more severe phases, and that they use this knowledge as a means for taking preventive actions. Since experiencing pain often involves a discursive element gaining linguistic control over one’s pain provides the person with an important resource for dealing with pain

Abstract [en]

This study focuses on how patients describe and manage their pain in their everyday life. The data consist of interviews with 37 patients undergoing treatment for chronic pain. The study focuses on how experiences of pain are mediated and interpreted with the help of the individual's discursive resources. It is argued that this kind of resource is important in constituting a structure of relations between a suffering person, pain and context. In the analysis of the material a four-step procedure was used, including both formal and content-related aspects. It was found that the patients describe chronic pain as a dynamic phenomenon. Patients learn about their pain by actively constituting relations among themselves, the pain and their activities. For the patients, chronic pain is a structured phenomenon. Patients often describe how pain is initiated, worsens and is alleviated. Patients thereby learn to distinguish different figures in their pain, which they are able to relate to in their management of pain. This suggests that a life in pain could be seen as an apprenticeship process. The heart of the matter in this process is learning to become sensitive to and flexible towards variations in the pain and potential pain triggers in the environment. This knowledge is important, as mastering pain is a balancing act between inner resources and environmental circumstances.